E-text prepared by Darleen Dove, Mary Meehan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 34861-h.htm or 34861-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/34861/pg34861-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34861/34861-h.zip) THE PURSUIT by FRANK SAVILE Author of "Beyond the Great South Wall," etc. With Illustrations by Herman Pfeifer Boston Little, Brown, and Company 1910 Copyright, 1909, 1910, By Little, Brown, and Company. All rights reserved Published, June, 1910 The University Press, Cambridge, U.S.A. [Illustration: _"I know now that you are a gentleman," she said simply_] CONTENTS I. THE LADY OF THE PIER II. AT THE TENT CLUB III. THE SHADOW OF A NAME IV. DESPARD EXPLAINS V. MR. MILLER VI. LANDON'S NEW PROFESSION VII. VILLA EULALIA VIII. THE FIRST TRICK IS LOST IX. AYLMER IS EXPLICIT X. BY FAVOR OF THE FOG XI. RATTIER LOSES HIS CALM XII. THE AMBUSH OF THE BROOM XIII. THE TRAP XIV. ONE SIDE OF A BARGAIN XV. PERINAUD'S NEWS XVI. AT MELILLA XVII. MUHAMMED SCORES TWICE XVIII. THE SANTA MARGARITA'S LAZARET XIX. MILLER IS STILL IMPERTURBABLE XX. AYLMER CLIMBS--AND FALLS XXI. FATE STAYS HER HAND XXII. THE PRISON XXIII. PADRE SIGISMONDI XXIV. LUIGI'S HOSPITALITY XXV. FATE'S FINAL WORD XXVI. DAWN COMES XXVII. SHADOWS GO XXVIII. FATE SMILES AT LAST ILLUSTRATIONS "I know now that you are a gentleman," she said simply "You saved the boy!" she said, in a quick, panting whisper "Mademoiselle, I am Sergeant Perinaud" She gripped the protecting hand between her fingers THE PURSUIT CHAPTER I THE LADY OF THE PIER It was not the muleteer's shove, slight but significant though it was, which produced John Aylmer's shrug of irritation. His resentment was directed at himself. He realized that he had been guilty of a gaucherie. For thirty seconds he had been standing halted in the main street of Tangier, a rock of obstruction to all the rabble traffic which passes between the Bab al Marsa and the Bab al Sôk, staring at--what? At a pretty woman. He reddened under his tan. The muleteer's shoulder had displaced him for purely practical reasons, for, indeed, almost benevolent ones, for the mules would have been capable of obtaining with their teeth what their guardian had obtained by mere weight of his body. But Aylmer felt that by accepted social standards a kick would not have been more than his due. Had he not been behaving like some cub of a cockney clerk at an Earl's Court Exhibition? His lips moved. He was muttering excuses of himself to himself, and knew that they were valid, but that an onlooker would have had no clue to them.